The present invention relates to a unit for compacting groups of flat products arranged side by side and on edge.
The present invention is especially suitable for use in the food industry, particularly for packing flat food products such as sweets, lozenges or similar, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
Italian Patent Application N. 3621A/89 relates to a device for feeding flat products in controlled manner, whereby the products, e.g. cylindrical sweets, are fed flat and in random manner on a vibratory conveyor to a number of downward-curving channels, each of which rotates the products substantially 90.degree. so that they are positioned on edge, and feeds them one at a time into respective pockets on a respective screw conveyor.
Each screw conveyor feeds the products transversely and unloads them successively and on edge on to an output conveyor extending beneath the output ends of the screw conveyors and comprising a conveyor belt with a series of transverse pockets, each designed to receive a group of products arranged side by side and on edge. The conveyor belt runs beneath a number of guide rods parallel to the traveling direction of the output conveyor, and each adjacent pair of which defines, along the output conveyor, a respective axial channel along which all the products fed on to the output conveyor by a given screw conveyor are fed successively. In other words, the screw conveyors are timed in relation to the output conveyor so as to feed a respective product into each pocket on the output conveyor, and the output ends of the screw conveyors are offset to enable each screw conveyor to feed the products into the same respective axial channel.
Downstream from the last screw conveyor, each pocket on the output conveyor thus houses a group of products arranged side by side and on edge, aligned perpendicular to the traveling direction of the output conveyor, and separated in said perpendicular direction by the guide rods in between.